


Something Broken About The Silver Lining

by everettross



Category: Black Panther (2018), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bad Puns, Badass, British Character, Civil War (Marvel), Denial of Feelings, F/M, Falling In Love, Hate to Love, I'm Bad At Tagging, Love, M/M, Marvel Universe, Other, Pre-Black Panther (2018), Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Roommates, Working Out My Feelings Through Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-07-28 05:10:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20058544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everettross/pseuds/everettross
Summary: It's when you least expect it when it happens the most. And if you're not careful enough you might come upon with one surprise or two. Or even more. So many more.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Woah, so. First fic. I've been writing this for a long long time and I'm very excited about the idea and the plot. So, I'm always open to suggestions and feedback. Thank you so much, hope you have fun as well as I did writing this fic :)

# Prologue

She wanted to get out of there. She needed to. But, still, she couldn’t find the strength to get up. Her muscles had given up and her mind was too fuzzed to even concentrate. She barely could see the room around her: an old abandoned storage that only held two small pieces of furniture, both too small for the size of the place, one chair and a desk with a lamp turned on placed on. The light was too much to bear, so the small amount of energy she had left she had used it positioning herself with her back turned to that awful lamp. She felt like in a dream, the blurriness of the atmosphere was drowsing her, but falling asleep was not an option.

A groan escaped from her throat as she placed both of her palms on the floor and tried to lift herself up, but she got no result, her limbs failing to gather any bit of strength. She mentally cursed and let her eyes flutter close, letting her mind drift for mere seconds, resting.

Her thoughts snaked around the reason why she had gotten there in the first place. She could still feel the cold feeling of the gun pressing against her jaw and black bruises forming in her arms and ribs. They were going to hurt later, but what worried her the most was where she was going to wake up, and if she was going to.

_“Hurry up, boss!” one of the men with the black masks had yelled from the door, “They have the signal already, they must be on their way, we need to get on moving!”_

_“We coming!” yelled another one back, “What about the girl, boss?”_

_“Leave it here, she can barely keep her eyes open,” the boss had said at a distance. But she must have got it wrong for, only seconds later, a hand closed around her jaw and forced her face up from the floor, meeting eyes with a black mask with eyes she couldn’t distinguish its color. A whimper hinted to come out, but when she opened her mouth no such thing came out. _

_“Good job, petal,” the voice purred just inches closer to her face, “say hello from us to the cops”_

_A fainted laugh was heard in the background as she was left alone, and after a loud sound of the door closing behind her, loneliness took control of the situation, her mind too overwhelmed to cope. _

Now, the echoes of her breathing were the only faint sound that could be heard, and it was a matter of time before someone found her, weak and helpless. Had she known someone was following her in the very beginning she’d have done something about it, and it would have saved her the countless abuses and the flight from across the sea.

She never had a place she could call her home, all the places she’d lived in were mere temporary rooms or apartments she never planned to stay in for so long, just a temporary fix before settling down and finally finding a safe haven she could call her own home. But, still, that was far from her reach, she knew that much. But something she knew for certain, this country was not her home and she wasn’t the least comfortable in here especially with the cold surface of the floor hitting her side as a constant reminder of the federals coming to get her to lock her up and question her about things she had no idea about but, somehow, she was going to be guilty for all charges because besides laying on the floor like some gift to the law, she was foreign and incapacitated. It was as if the only thing missing was a ribbon on her head.

At this point in her life, she was supposed to feel used to the response her body gave her after it happened, but she had to admit, although she was aware of all the consequences and someone in their right mind would find a way to control it or ever bare with it, each time she found herself trapped in the same situation, barely conscious at all and unable to move or even form a sentence without an overwhelming pain rushing her body, disabling her for quite some time. No one ever gave her an answer to it, but considering the situation, no one ever had cared to in the first place.

She had learned to trust no one in this, since she was a little girl not even her own family had been trustworthy and loyal and so crushed was her childhood after realizing that, that she found herself learning the basic things in life from the confinements of a cell and fifteen daily minutes of television and books that were thrown at her, almost unwillingly. Not mentioning the things she had to learn the hard way because no one had ever told her that trying to get by was harder than the books and television showed and that sometimes nights could be so cold that she’d have to cuddle with the bushes and pray not to freeze in her sleep. She’d heard a mother from some television show tell her children how there were going to be moments in life were not even highest education would prepare them for, but _this_ she was sure she wasn’t referring it to.

No one had ever prepared her for this moment, no one had ever told her she was going to be even close to living it. But chances were, although she may be getting into trouble, physical violence was going to be kept on the lowest, and that she was relieved for.

With a loud groan emerging from her, she managed to pull her upper body from the floor to sitting position, her back immediately hitting the leg of the desk, keeping her in place. Hard pounding was hitting against her skull and the bruises on her body started to hurt more. Her limbs fell motionlessly to her sides and she pressed the back of her head against the cold surface, sending painful chills down her spine. A hiss fell from her lips and she exhaled, her eyes closing once again before a loud tud was heard from the distance. She opened her eyes, expecting everything to come.

“Police, open up!” the echoes sounded faintly on the back of her head accompanied with three big kicks of the door in front of her. No sooner had she realized what was going on than a bright white light came into contact with her face, making her close her eyes immediately, the new abrupt change of light harming her. She yielded her face to the side, but that was the most she could do, her energy compromised and her mind in a blur.

She felt quick footsteps coming right at her, shouting inaudible things as she slightly opened her eyes to see lots of uniformed people around her. She couldn’t cock her head upwards, but she was pretty sure guns were pointed at her.

“Hands were I can see them!” one of the voices demanded, stepping closer.

With a big effort, she slowly lifted her forearms, her upper limbs shaking in the process, and turned her palms up so they could all see she was wielding nothing but her bare consciousness.

“She’s barely conscious, sir,” another distinct voice commented, watching her arms give up and fall to her sides again, “barely can keep her eyes open”

She saw the person in front of her crouch down in front of her. As she suspected, she was right, a big gun was held with both of his hands and a soon as his knee touched the floor he freed one hand to grab her shoulder, forcing her to meet his gaze.

“Looks like she’s just in a shock,” he said, two fingers moving to the side of her neck, checking her pulse, “her heartbeat’s fine, we’re taking her, she can account for what she did once she’s back to normal”

Something in his voice suggested that he wasn’t so sure about his words, and what made her doubt about it too was the fact that the man wore a police uniform, not a doctor’s. But she couldn’t make any reproach as two pairs of strong hands closed on her arms, pulling her up.

“N-No,” she barely whispered, whining at the brutality of the officers.

Another two hands closed around her wrists, and before she knew, cuffs now adorned them, the cold metal reminding her of the faint air of consciousness she had left. The hands on her arms forced her towards the door, but her feet seemed to move much later than they needed to, and she ended up being dragged out of the building, the hot sun hitting her skin and burning her eyes.

She heard a car door open and she felt the hands throw her inside the back seat, closing the door on her right and leaving her alone. Her eyes couldn’t find the strength to open and she started feeling the faint cloud of thoughts that rounded her brain disperse, and such was the darkness around her mind that sleep found her way in, claiming her existence and promising to stay.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First chapter. Woah. Here we go. Remember to leave kudos and comments and I hope you enjoy it. Many interesting things to come! Thank you so much for reading :)

#  Chapter One 

_Fuuuuck_. Like a dim light slowly brightening every second, her eyes fluttered open and she lifted her head to find four walls around her. It was some kind of storage, she could tell. Brown boxes with papers inside were placed side by side in shelves right in front of her. She shifted her body so she could stand up only to find her hands cuffed behind her back, the chains in the cuffs also connected to the chair, preventing her body from standing up.

Her mind started to gather up information by pieces, first the image of the cops, then the black masked individuals that had taken her prisoner only to leave her behind when the deed was sold. She winced when, breathing in too hard, pain pinched her ribs, forcing her to breathe more calmly and controlled. That feeling reminded her of the multiple hours she had spent with those criminals, all the punches, the threats, pointing guns and pointing knives; and she was pretty sure there was fair cut on her stomach hinting to start bleeding anytime soon.

There was no way she could get out of this easily. She had no documents, no papers, she didn’t even have a phone and, most importantly, she had no one to account for her in any part of the world. She was all alone in this, and she was very much aware of it, but getting into trouble was not part of the plan.

Her heart drummed in her chest, slowly and tranquil – she hadn’t been taught much but one thing she knew was too keep her head up in this kind of situations, therefore, to keep herself confident and steady, not let anything slip out.

She had been in this situation quantity of times, but in a different situation. She remembered the fake soft calm voice of the so called doctor asking several questions regarding her state, her humor, mental health, how she coped with the headaches, migraines and muscle fatigue. But there was a big difference: she didn’t have her hands tied and she didn’t have to go to a prison to serve sentence afterwards. But one thing they did have in common: she knew how to dodge the questions, and she was definitely going to.

She huffed and turned her head to the left, meeting her gaze with a dark mirror. Her long brown hair fell over her shoulders, each wave grazing the fabric of the oversized t-shirt her abductors had forced her to wear. Her face was better than she was expecting to, although the light in her eyes had faded showing nothing but tiredness and exhaust, somehow her face managed to stay the same, no scratches nor bruises visible from the distance. The only difference she could picture was a faint brown stain of mud on her cheek she didn’t reckon its origin, but besides that everything seemed fine from her neck up.

She gave herself a confident nod of the head, aware of the fact that the mirror was in reality a one side glass and that most probably there were people staring at her, studying all her movements and testing her patience, but she knew better than that. She moved her graze back to the front and considered her options. _None_.

Alright, yeah, very little options, so she’ll have to do what she could with what she had, and even though she didn’t have much, something was going appear. Once, she’d heard someone in the television say: “There’s always one solution to every problem” and since then, she considered the truth in the statement something to follow, like a life motto.

After what she felt like hours, but probably it must have been only ten minutes, the sound of the door unlocking filled her ears and she fixed her eyes on the door to witness someone, more specifically, a man walk inside. He took a chair that was placed right next to the door and moved it some feet in front of her, close enough to see her in detail but far enough so it wouldn’t allow her to be smart and attack him. _Smart._

He was rather short than tall, his gray hair slicked back showed hint of the blonde that used to be there before, his blue eyes studying her like an enigma he was about to decipher, but there was something in them she could catalogue as curiosity. He threw himself down on the chair, his legs spreading open and his arms crossing over his chest. He was rather fit, the muscles all around his body showing he had had some kind of training in the past somehow, probably military, by the way his whole persona exuded authority.

_There it was_. His lips pursed in a thin like and the harsh but at the same time kind sensation they sent through her body was all about the authority. So, yeah, most probably military.

He stared at her for a very long time, eyes scanning how she responded to silence. She only gave the attitude back, staring at him waiting for him to speak up first. No questions nor comments were going to come out of her no matter how long they waited.

Finally, he was the one to give up first, sighing nonchalantly and shrugging his shoulders very lightly.

“So?” he said, monosyllabic and open, acting as if she had to be the first one to speak in the first place. His tone was all careless, no accusations, no demands. For now.

“Yeap?” she asked back, shrugging her shoulders as well waiting for him to start the questions. She had to be smart, and for that, she had to speak only when it was necessary.

The man in front of her sighed and gave her a light smile, a small dimple threatening to come out. “Considering you are the one who’s cuffed to a chair I thought you were going to be the one with the questions, naturally, but I guess that’s not the case,” silence filled the air again for some moments and when he realized she was not going to speak either, he continued, “all right. Maybe you’ll want to explain why we’re not able to recognize you at all?”

She sighed and gave the man a smug smile. She knew how to be smart, but for that she had to give out some information.

“You know, some things rather speak for themselves than spit it out that easily...” she trailed off, her accent thick and distinct, and when she saw the man’s eyes open a little bit wider and nod slightly, she knew he’d got the answer.

“England,” it was more than a statement than an answer, but she nodded anyways, confirming his suspicions, “never went there, they say there’s too much rain”

“You grow used to it,” she added nonchalantly.

“So I can say it’s pretty obvious climate conditions weren’t the reasons you decided to fly all over the Atlantic, am I right?”

“Certainly,” she nodded.

“Let me see if I got this correctly,” he shifted a bit, straightening his body, “you and some organization you work with decided to come over here and do some of the work you did back in England but here in the United States. What happened? Work was scarce back there?”

She winced disappointed and shook her head, closing her eyes for a second before facing him again. “Sorry for breaking it out to you but you weren’t in the slightest close there, officer”

“Care to explain?”

“It was not a mutual decision to move to your country at all”

“How so?”

“There was... unwillingness from some parts”

“So, some of them are still in England?”

“Oh, no! I don’t think so,” she shook her head and looked to her left, watching herself in the mirror, “let’s just say that the... international parts weren’t willing to come here”

The man huffed, and leaned over, his elbows resting on his knees and staring at her with a confident look.

“So, what you are saying is that, there are more people from other countries involved in this?” he asked, tilting his head just inches to the side.

She shook her head again, “I don’t know their precise nationalities but I dare to say there was just one international part involved in this”

It took the man just seconds to put all the pieces together.

“You didn’t want to come”

“I did not want to come,” she repeated, lifting her chin confidently, lifting her legs to the chair and crossing her legs under her body, “and if you are smart enough, officer, which I hope you are, you’d understand one very important thing about me and this so called organization you think I am part of”

The man stared at her with bright eyes and licked his lips, the answer was there but he didn’t dare to say it. The air around the room was lighter than it was before, and she knew that in the mind of the man at least three charges were dropped and more questions were added to his mental list. Eventually, he spoke.

“You came here... obligated?”

“Think of the harshest way someone can drag a person from her home country; please, officer, don’t be kind,” there was some air of sarcasm in her voice, and the smile on her face gave the atmosphere some tense humor that helped her keep her head up, secure and confident. That was another thing she had learned in the past, by making other people feel pity for her she gained nothing.

The man in front of her only nodded a couple of times and threw himself back again, his shoulder blades hitting the back of the chair.

“Agent,” he corrected at first, “not officer, please. And, why do you think they... did that to you?”

“What? Attack me and drug me so they could put me in the trunk of a plane just so they could fly me over here and take turns to hurt me?”

He cleared his throat, uncomfortable, “yeah”

“I had something they needed”

“And what was that something they needed?”

“That thing they stole, agent”

He crossed his arms over his chest again, a smile appearing on his lips.

“I see what you’re doing there”

“Excuse me?” she enquired, tilting her head confused.

“You know you are not going to win anything by lying, right? Especially to the government, I have to remind you,” he said, his head moving to stare at the door for a moment.

“You don’t believe me?” she tilted her head again and smiled at him innocently.

“I have my suspicions,” he said, smiling as well.

“Why so?” she asked.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it immediately, realizing he hadn’t thought of his words to speak.

“Well, respecting the confidentiality of the case, I have my right to believe you are not the respective owner of the million dollar worth of guns that were taken from the FBI quarters, am I right there?”

“Well, you are,” she said.

“And I don’t believe it’s just a mere coincidence that the signal that disconnected the alarm came from the exact place where you were found by my colleagues, is that so?”

“I said, I had what they needed, sir, and what they needed was to get there, and that was what I did,” she added, “it was that or to die, and I don’t mean to insult your beloved country in any way but, my loyalty is rather egoistic”

“Are you aware that the people you _got there _stole the highest rank of guns and ammunition that the United States of America has ever created and that the threat that now implicated puts the whole country in risk?” his tone was growing harsher with each word.

She, on the other hand, remained calm.

“That wasn’t specified, I’m sorry, it’s hard to read between the lines when you have someone punching your ribs and pressing a butcher’s knife against your jugular,” she spat out.

The agent’s lips pressed together tightly and he inhaled.

“You can drop the sarcasm now, for your own good,” he threatened.

“I will when you stop accusing me of things that I am not guilty of,” she said, leaning her body as close as she could.

“What else do you know?” he simply asked.

“That’s... that’s a very wide concept, you know,” she answered.

The man inhaled again and his expression was now harsher. He was losing patience and he didn’t appreciate her sarcasm and her avoidance of questions. His loud exhale turned the air in the room more tense, and something inside her turned, telling her that from now on she had to watch her words carefully. Was it fear? She didn’t think so, it was more like a survival instinct that showered her body.

“What did you know that could have possibly showed them where they were hidden?” the agent finally said, his eyes sending shivers down her spine, making her straighten up.

“Well, respecting my own confidentiality, I can say that I can know where everything is,” she slowly responded. The secret had not left her mouth in a very long time, and it felt uncomfortable around her voice but considering the circumstances there was no way she could avoid going to jail or even charges without letting the truth slip out of her lips. Besides, it wasn’t like she hadn’t suffered enough for it.

“You’re going to have to explain more,” the agent said, a hint of a smile emerging from his lips.

She sighed and tilted her head down for a moment, considering her words carefully. Actually, she had never explained it to anyone, so the words took their time before finally they trailed down her lips.

“Some people’ve told me it’s like one or two levels up of omnipresence,” she started, “I don’t actually know what it is, but I have it. The people who... abducted me, they wanted to know where those guns were hidden so they could deactivate the alarms. They just told me to look for them, and I did. That’s- that’s how it works, pretty much”

Silence now filled the air and she looked up to see the agent staring at her with big eyes and a smile on his face. A chuckle came out from his mouth and he straightened up.

“So, what you are telling me is that... you can actually see where everything is, no matter how well hidden it is?” there was a hint of mocking in his voice, but she made no such fuss about it. She just nodded and hoped for the best, the outing of the secret weighting on her heart.

“All right,” with a swift move of his hand, he gestured to her and crossed his arms over his chest, “prove it”

She swallowed, hard. “I- it’s not that... easy,” she said, “during... the looking it hurts and when I’m done and I... come back, it hurts as well and I am in a shock and can’t move... at all for quite some time and it’s... not easy”

The agent broke out in a chuckle, his shoulders shaking. “I knew it,” he said, standing up, “let someone know when you’re ready to speak the truth, I am not going to sit up here and listen how you make up stories just because you think it’s going to keep you out of trouble,” he walked towards the door and opened it, “as for now on, you are under the custody of the United States of America. You are allowed to make one call only, meals are going to be at eight and five and you have toilet priv-“

“You have a rather big apartment,” her voice suddenly interrupted his speech, “the first thing you see when you walk in is the couch meters away, the wall on the end is mostly big windows with a balcony with a very nice view of the city, but before that to the right you have a small bathroom and on the left a corridor that leads to a big office, your office, full of books and a big desk and chairs, right next to that door there’s a small table with bottles of alcohol and glasses”

“How did you know?” he whispered before turning around to find the girl with her head down, her long hair covering her face so he wasn’t able to see her. Her tone was almost robotic, but with a touch of kindness and shudder in there that caught his attention. Her breathe was low and steady, but every breath she inhaled and exhaled was shown by her movements.

“Your kitchen is right after the small bathroom on the right, the only thing that separates it from the dining room is only an isle, the dining room’s just the table and six... no, eight chairs. To the left there’s the living with said couch and a big tv, a bookshelf on the left of the television and a coffee table between the couch and the television. Pretty big, both of them. And behind the television there are stairs that lead to a mezzanine that is your room. Huge king size bed, neatly made and you left a copy of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ on top of it. To my right there’s the big bathroom and to my left there’s a walk in wardrobe, lots of pretty expensive suit and _oh_\- like I imagined, a military suit. You separate your socks by color and your underwear is-“

“You can leave that,” he interrupted her, suddenly too aware of the fact that she was nosing his drawers.

“Right, sorry. You left two plates and one mug on the sink to wash, as well as a two spoons and a fork. There’s not much to eat in your fridge, but behind the milk there’s three quarters of a chocolate cake with a fork next to it, so you regularly steal small pieces, that’s understandable. Right on top of the isle you have a bowl of fruits. Three apples, four bananas and one pear. Is that enough for you, mister agent?”

His mouth gaped open and he nodded, only to realize that she couldn’t see him at all. “Yeah- Yes,” he muttered, his voice breaking a bit in shock.

She sighed loudly, relieved. “Okay, I’ll leave your house. Don’t call any kind of ambulance if I fall asleep or if I don’t respond quickly enough or anything, at all. They are all... side effects of this. Just... _don’t_”

That last word came out in a whisper as her head fell down more before looking up again, very slowly. Her shoulders fell down, like they were jelly and she looked like she could barely keep her head up.

With a great effort and her eyes barely open she turned her head to see the amazed look on the agent’s face behind the blurriness of her vision, holding the door open with his hand on the doorknob. The defeated look in her face made him almost feel compassion for her, but he did not move at all, probably worried something would happen. She gave him the smallest smile, the only one she could give.

“I told you,” she muttered, slowly and calm, before giving in and shutting her eyes close.


End file.
